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Wednesday, 2 September 2015

Stamping My Mark

During our Summer holidays we spent 5 glorious days in Paris. On Sunday morning we walked from our hotel to a flea market - Le Marche aux Puces de la Porte de Vanves. Puces means flea, and the Porte de Vanves is the place where it is held every Sunday and Thursday morning.

It was pouring with rain. But we didn't let that stop us. I had so much fun rummaging at all the stuff on the stalls. My french is not very good but I had taken the trouble to learn, or remembered from my far off school days, the french for 'how much', 'thank you' etc. the common decencies of good manners. Wryly I observed some other foreigners who did not bother to say anything other than 'how much' loudly and shrilly. I digress.

This particular market is great for smaller things. It did have a few bits of furniture but not much. Maybe they have more on Thursdays, or maybe they read the forecast and didn't want to risk the damage to their goods. This is the sort of flea market that I wish flea markets in England were, and alas are not any more (well, not in my part of the woods). There were all sorts of things ancient and modern. I didn't pay more than 10 euros for anything (but there were more expensive things). And I didn't haggle.

The pieces I bought included two stamps.

Two stamps

The large one, on the right, is a stamp used in bookbinding for stamping the letters on the spine of the book, so the vendor informed me. He had lots on his stall so I chose the letter B as it is the initial of my surname. He was a lovely man and told me his name was Bernard. (I cynically wonder if he changes his name to match the letter stamp each customer buys).

Bookbinding stamp

For sealing wax

This stamp I found on another stall. It was the only one there and would you believe it, the letters A B are the initials of my name! It wasn't until I went to use it and found some of the letters clogged up with something that turned out to be red wax that I realised it is a sealing wax stamp.

But both stamps work fine with ink.

The AB (sealing wax stamp) has a slight problem with the bottom of the B but if I smooth the paper onto the stamp it is fine. The B bookbinding stamp is rather lovely.

I love the handles of both too. The wood handles are lovely and tactile to hold.

I bought another couple of things at the flea market which I will show you another time.